Related

The Major League Soccer (MLS) defender/midfielder was in town to support some of his former University of Saskatchewan Huskies teammates on the Saskatoon Revolution as they won bronze on Oct. 8 in their first-ever appearance at nationals.

“I’m very pumped for them … some of them I played with at club level, provincial level, all over the place so for them to be able to form a team and play on a competitive stage, even though university is done, is awesome,” Levis said.

He added having a competition like the Toyota National Championships is great for players in Saskatoon.

“It means a lot for kids coming through the program because if they don’t happen to make it, which happens to 99 per cent of kids or people trying to push through, and if they don’t hit that milestone that they want to hit, they can always play at this level, which is still a highly competitive level,” Levis said.

“You get a group behind you and it’s still something to believe in, and you win a medal and again it’s for the province which is obviously awesome.”

During his fourth season with the Huskies, Levis lead the conference with nine goals while adding eight assists in 11 regular season matches, helping the team claim their first-ever Canada West championship.

Levis, 25, signed a MLS contract with Whitecaps on Aug. 23, 2016. He sat out the 2017 season while recovering from an ACL tear in his right knee, but is healthy and determined to help his team make the playoffs.

“I take this as my first year, last year I was injured basically the entire year so (Oct. 6) was my 11th start, 12th game I’ve played in, which is a pretty good stat for my first year,” Levis said.

“There’s always that rivalry between Vancouver and Toronto (FC), who’s the best Canadian team. It’s obviously awesome knocking them out. We got three games remaining, we play some good teams (Los Angeles) FC away, (Sporting) Kansas City at home and then Portland (Timbers) so we just got to get as many points as we can and continue to push.”